


I'm drawn to you

by Imwastingmylifeinhere



Series: Fierrochase Week (more like two days of it but meh) [3]
Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, Trans Magnus Chase, Trans Male Character, because i couldn't pass this up, because i needed to write trans Magnus at least once, but there's no spoilers here, i just finnished this on the same day as ship of the dead, secret admirers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 22:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12352101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imwastingmylifeinhere/pseuds/Imwastingmylifeinhere
Summary: Magnus Chase would never have expected to have a secret admirer, much less one that sends him beautiful drawing and sketches with each letter, but here he is.





	I'm drawn to you

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I needed to make the chapter a bad pun, you know how I am. And yes, I did name Magnus's transphobic teacher after one of mine, though I don't know how she would have reacted to a trans student (then again, she did say gay people asking for marriage equality was 'going too far' so yeah). Anyway, enough with stupid teachers, on with the story! Be glad I don't pay attention in algebra because that's where I thought of this.

Magnus found the first note sometime around the middle of October.

He and the rest of his friends – Mallory, T.J, Halfborn and Sam – were going to go to Halfborn’s house after school ended for a group study session. (Meaning they would _try_ to work on their assignments, eats lots of snacks and gossip like bored housewives.) Sam’s elusive half-sister, Alex, wasn’t been able to make it and Magnus would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed. He had seen Alex around Sam before a few times and he had talked to her even less than that, but she was undeniably one of the most attractive people Magnus had ever seen and he really wanted to talk to her more. His friends teased him that he stared at Alex whenever they were in the same room together, which might have been true, but Magnus would like to keep his dignity about it.

Anyway, they were supposed to pile up inside Halfborn’s old truck after school to go to his house, but they were half way to the car when Magnus remembered he had a left one of his books at class.

“Do you need to get it?” Mallory asked, her shoulders slumping at the thought of having to go all the way back to Magnus’s English class to get it.

“Yeah I do, that’s what the assignment I have is on.” As much as Magnus disliked Miss. Marlene – she keeps getting his pronouns and name wrong, despite him telling her every time – he didn’t need any more reasons for her to be after him, and not doing an assignment would definitely put him in her black list (more so than he already is). “Go ahead and go to the car, I’ll be back quickly.”

“Okay, just hurry back!” Mallory yelled after him. “If you’re too late we’ll leave you here!”

Ah, isn’t friendship amazing?

Magnus run to the English classroom as quickly as he could. He made it there surprisingly quickly, since the corridors were devoid of students. (There was just something about an empty school that was really creepy.) Magnus walked into the classroom heaving, reminded once again why he wasn’t in any sports’ teams. He really wasn’t the sports type anyway, unlike a lot of his friends, and running in his binder wasn’t the best.

His book was waiting for him on his desk near the back of the class. Nobody had taken it, which Magnus was thankful for; he didn’t even want to think what explaining that to Miss. Marlene would be like, though nobody would want a boring English book anyway. He was about to pick it up and shove it into his backpack when he noticed a paper sticking out of it.

_Weird, I don’t think I put that there._

After checking again to make sure this was his book, Magnus pulled the paper out. What he saw when he did was an honestly mind-blowing sketch of a boy with his head resting boredly on his hand while he read a book. It wasn’t any boy either. It was him.

Magnus wasn’t sure whether he should admire the artist’s skill (they had made _him_ look attractive, that was quite a fit) or be creeped out over the fact somebody had left him a drawing of himself inside one of his books. Maybe a bit of both was fine.

He examined the sketch more, completely baffled by how somebody could even begin to draw something like this, how they were able to turn a bunch of lines into something that looked this good even with him as the subject matter. Wondering who had drawn this, Magnus turned the paper to see if the artist had left their name on the back. They hadn’t, but they had left a note.

_Dear Magnus,_

_I know this looks creepy._

_Well, at least they’re self aware,_ Magnus thought and kept reading the short letter.

_Trust me, I know it does. Some stranger leaves a sketch of you and a letter inside one of your books. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t read this letter. Actually, don’t read the rest, you’ll save me a lot of trouble. I didn’t want to do this anyway, my sister forced me to, and if writing you a weird love letter will get her off my back I’m willing to do anything._

_So, yeah, this is a love letter. I have a crush on you. There, I said it. And I know what you’re thinking, who writes their crushes love letters in this day and age? Me, apparently. My sister was trying to convince me to do the “sensible” thing and talk to you and ask you out, but I joked that I’d rather write you a cringy love letter than actually have to talk to you and inevitably get rejected, so she kept nagging me until I finally did it. I should have never mentioned it to her in the first place, but she sees you sketching a boy in your notes and immediately wants all the details. Sisters, right? Anyway, yeah, I have a humongous crush on you and my sister can be very persistent._

_You probably won’t do it, but she’s standing over me right now telling me to write this, so if you want t write back (which, again, you probably won’t do)leave your letter in that big dusty red dictionary in the Spanish classroom. Nobody touches that thing._

_With love,_

_Your secret admirer._

_P.S. I can’t believe I just wrote that, Jesus fuck._

By the time Magnus finished the letter, he was smiling at the stranger’s salty, sarcastic remarks for their sister. Still, even his amusement couldn’t stop him from reading the letter again two times, even then he still couldn’t understand how it was real.

Someone had a crush on him. On _him,_ of all people. How was that possible? He wasn’t exactly the most handsome or popular guy in school, he was pretty far from that, honestly. There were a ton more people you could get a crush on, so why him of all people?

Still, even if he didn’t understand it, he couldn’t deny the warm feeling the spread through him as his face flushed red. Somebody had a crush on him and the thought was extremely flattering, especially with whoever his secret admirer was clearly seeing him as a boy and nothing else.

Magnus was brought out of his daze when his phone started vibrating in his pocket as one of his friends called him to ask where he was.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m coming, just a minute!” Magnus said into the phone as he shoved the book and the letter inside his backpack and sprinted to the parking lot.

/////

Alex didn’t know what made him check. He _knew_ there wouldn’t be a response, why would somebody reply to some random stranger’s love letter, especially when said letter came along with a drawing of you? (Alex still can’t believe he sent Magnus one of them. He cringed and blushed just thinking about it.) (And yes, he had drawn Magnus more than once. You say he’s head over heels, he says he was just practicing.)

So yeah, his mind knew it that there wouldn’t be a response, but he still checked the old dictionary. Maybe a part of him hoped there would be a letter waiting for him, but he did his best to squash that part down. He shouldn’t get his hopes up. Magnus wouldn’t write back to him and Alex’s letter would probably get thrown in the trash, maybe after getting a laugh out of it with his friends. Alex just didn’t understand why Sam insisted he wrote it.

The bell rang and everybody spilled out of the Spanish classroom, eager to be anywhere else but here. Alex lingered around more, pretending to be putting his books away as everybody, even the teacher, went away. There was no one in the room by the time he put his sketchbook away. Alex already knew Spanish, he was only taking the class because he figured it would be easy, and it was, so he used the period to sit in the back and sketch to his heart’s content.

With no one left to see him, Alex took the old dictionary from the bookcase and skimmed through it boredly. This was a waste of time, but he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else unless he did this – wait, what was that?

Curiously, Alex went back to the part where the book’s pages had a small gap. _It couldn’t be…_

But sure enough, there, between alphabetized Spanish words, was a folded piece of paper. With his stupid heart doing summersaults inside his chest, Alex pulled the paper out and unfolded it.

_Dear secret admirer,_

_Thank you a lot for your letter, though I’m glad you understand it looked a bit creepy at first._

Alex was split between smiling like a doofus because he had gotten a response and slapping himself because _of course that drawing was creepy, why the hell did you send it?_

_I mean, I’m not complaining, it was a really good drawing, you have some serious talent if you can make me look good. Which I guess means I should address the elephant in the room, being the fact that you have a crush on me? How? Honestly, I’m flattered, but I can’t see why you would have a crush on me of all people. I don’t think I’m exactly the most crushable person around. But hey, um, thanks._

_Anyway, I don’t know why I wrote this letter. Maybe I was just curious? Maybe because you were so sure I wouldn’t respond and I subconsciously wanted to piss you off? I don’t know. But your letter has been stuck in my head ever since I got it so I felt like I’d blow up if I didn’t do something, so. Tell me about yourself, I guess? (Why am I this awkward with starting conversations even in a letter?) What are your pronouns? What grade are you in? What do you look like? (You won’t answer this probably but I wrote it anyway.) What are your hobbies? Do you have bad taste in everything or just crushes? (Ah, self-deprecating humor, my specialty.)_

_So, ah, yeah, that’s all I have to say. See you. (Or well, read you, but you know what I mean.)_

_Sincerely,_

_Magnus Chase._

Alex reread the letter about three times before he finally accepted the fact that Magnus had actually written back. Magnus had actually written back, complimented his drawing and asked to learn more about him. Alex wanted to slap himself for the stupid smile threatening to take over his face and the uncoordinated beating of his heart as he thought back to the letter. Curse you, human feelings!

The bell snapped Alex back to reality. He shoved the letter in his pocket and run to his next class. He made it just before the lesson started and he took his seat, not caring about the rest of the students looking at him or for the teacher going “ts, ts”. He knew he should be paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying, or at least pretend to, but Alex really couldn’t be bothered right now, not when he was thinking hard about what he should write back to Magnus.

/////

Magnus found the next note in his locker. A folded piece of paper was lying on a stack of books, his admirer’s (just thinking that felt so surreal) handwriting looking up at him the simple _To: Magnus (duh)_ written at the front of the paper.

Magnus pulled it out and unfolded the paper. The back of the paper, where his name was written, was filled from top to bottom in random doodles. Stars and crisscrossed lines decorated the margins of the paper, lone eyes and hands doting the page wherever there was a bit of space. There was a small sketch of Miss. Dods, the algebra teacher, with horns sprouting from her head and wings from her back like some short of demon, throwing ‘x’s and ‘y’s and a ton more incomprehensible algebra things at a cartoonish crowd of screaming students. Near the top of the paper was a doodle of what Magnus guessed was a green haired Eliza from Hamilton holding a letter to her chest with “Helpless” written above her head in fancy badly-done cursive. Half-finished sketches of who must have been (a more attractive) Magnus were spread throughout the paper.

Magnus’s lips were tugging upwards in a small smile as he turned the paper to look at the letter.

_Dear Magnus,_

_I can’t believe you actually answered me. I think I made it pretty clear in my first letter that I didn’t expect you to. Though if you were trying to piss me off by doing that, you failed because it just made me weirdly happy. (Don’t tell that to anyone, I have a reputation to maintain.)_

_Thank you for your compliment, but I have to disagree because someone would need to have a lot of talent to do you justice. I suppose people don’t tell you often that you’re very pretty, huh? Well, you are, so there._

_Now, as for your questions: I’m genderfluid, so my pronouns keep changing, but she/ her would be a safe guess most days (though I’m male as I’m writing this). I’m in tenth grade like you. As you guessed, I can’t tell you what I look like because, trust me, you would be able to figure out who I am immediately. My hobbies are mostly art, especially pottery. I also like fantasy/ sci-fi/ adventure books and hiking or going camping. And since you seem to think nobody would have a crush on you (I’m obviously the exception to that rule), here’s a nice little list of reasons why:_

  * _You have really nice hair. It’s sorta old-fashioned and it makes you look a bit like Kurt Cobain, but I like it. It suits you and it looks really soft. It’s also fun to draw._
  * _I swear to my pottery wheel your eyes are amazing and no matter how many times I have tried, I just can’t get the color right from memory._
  * _Your whole face lights up when you laugh a lot and I have to remind myself not to stare because that would be creepy._
  * _You look like a personified ball of sunshine but you are really sarcastic and cynical and seeing you roast someone is one of the best things I’ve seen in my life._
  * _Speaking of roasting, that one time you sassed Marlene in front of the entire class because she kept getting your pronouns wrong and you told her off so well that she was gapping like a fish for a few seconds. That was epic (and hot) (don’t judge me). (Also, yes, I’m in your English class. Spoilers, I guess?)_
  * _You’re just generally adorable? Like, what more do you want me to say? I’m in deep. (Btw, enjoy this because I don’t think I’ve ever said the word ‘adorable’ to describe anyone out loud and probably never will, but this is a letter and I feel more comfortable to call you cute than I would in person.)_
  * _You’re a nice person. Like, honestly, you’re such a Hufflepuff it’s ridiculous, but really endearing and I’ve seen you help out people around school you don’t even know. Like, yeah, blame me for falling for a saint!_



_That’s everything that comes to mind right now that I can actually fit in this paper. If I wrote down everything this thing would be bigger than the list of idiots at this school._

_I don’t know if writing to each other will be a thing but I really hope it will be._

_You seriously need to work on your self-esteem dude,_

_Your secret admirer._

Magnus hadn’t realized it – probably because he was too busy feeling his skin melt of his face because of how hard he was blushing - but he was smiling at the letter like an idiot. He was so caught up in the warmth that flooded through his body because of this person’s word that he didn’t notice Halfborn, Mallory and T.J sneak up on him.

“Boo!” Halfborn said right in his ear, because, as someone who was graduating this year, that’s how mature he was when it came to his friends. Magnus yelped in surprised and reflexively shoved the letter behind a sweatshirt in his locker. God forbid any of his friends found out about the letters, they would never let him hear the end of it.

“Halfborn, what the hell?” Magnus turned around, still positively red in the face, to look at the shit-eating grins on his friends’ faces.

Apparently, scaring him into almost having a heart-attack was funny, because Halfborn laughed. “Aw, don’t be like that, Magnus. I was just trying to cheer you up before you have to go suffer in Miss. Hitler’s class.”

Magnus’s good mood soured as he realized that, yes, his next class was with his most hated teacher. He groaned and threw his head back. “Damnit, I’d rather you kill me than have to deal with her for forty five minutes.”

Mallory nodded solemnly and patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, you’ll be fine. Think of the bright side,” she said, that familiar teasing tone creeping into her voice, “you’ll get to see your crush.”

Magnus immediately flushed red (well, _redder_ ). He had English with Alex Fierro and course they would tease him about it.

“I don’t have a crush,” he hissed at them. They just smiled, the little shits, and shot each other these looks™, like they were talking without actually saying anything. The unfortunate side effects of becoming friends with people who have known each other since kindergarten.

“Now, now, Magnus,” T.J said in a sweet fatherly kind of tone, ruffling up Magnus’s hair. “There’s nothing wrong with having a crush. You’ll feel better if you admit it.”

“I. Don’t. Have. A. Crush,” Magnus said slowly, emphasizing every word. Yet his face was still burning and a small voice in the back of his head was saying, _who are you kidding?_

_Shut up, brain, this does not concern you._

Magnus’s friends didn’t look convinced, but the boy didn’t look at them, instead turning around to shove the books he needed and the letter inside his back. “I’ll see you at lunch,” he said before running away lest they keep teasing him.

Magnus was almost to the door of the English classroom where he had an important realization. His secret admirer was in the same English class as him.

Suddenly dreading this period much less than usual, Magnus walked through the door and shut down at his desk. He was early, normally he postponed having to come here as much as he could, and the classroom wasn’t full yet. He got his books out and pretended to look at them while he watched the door and each person that walked through it, trying to figure out who could be the person writing him letters.

 _Who did he know at school that was genderfluid?_ Okay, not many people, but there was always the possibility they weren’t out yet. Still, simply asking that question brought a single person to the forefront of his mind. As if on cue, lo and behold, Alex Fierro walked into the classroom.

Magnus gasped a little, just a little, but he was too distracted to yell at himself for it. Alex was wearing pink and green, as usual, but damn did she pull it off. A pronoun bottom was pinned to her hoodie, informing the world that today was a she/her day. Her hair was pulled back in a tiny ponytail at the base of her neck and there were paint stains on her fingers.

Magnus didn’t realize he was staring until Alex sat down at her desk next to his and waved hello at him. He waved back awkwardly, praying to the universe that he wasn’t blushing as much as he felt he was (curse his pale skin!).

“How long do you think she’ll manage to last before throwing somebody out of the class?” Alex asked, leaning over closer to Magnus. The blonde couldn’t help but be surprised. Alex spent most of her time in this class pretending to be paying attention, wanting to kill the teacher and doodling. They spoke occasionally, but even that didn’t happen so commonly, mostly because Magnus sucked at keeping conversations going, especially with beautiful people.

“I say ten minutes,” Magnus guessed, glancing at Miss. Marlene at the front of the room. She had a habit of getting angry at students even when they didn’t do anything and she almost always yelled at and/or kicked out a few specific students. (Two of which were Magnus and Alex.)

Alex hummed thoughtfully. “I say five. She looked like she wanted to cut my head off last time.”

Magnus snickered as he remembered their last lesson, where Alex had been feeling especially rebellious and kept mocking Miss. Marlene whenever her back was turned. Magnus’s eyes closed as he laughed and he didn’t see the lovestruck way Alex was looking at him.

They didn’t get the chance to talk much more because the bell rang and Miss. Marlene slammed the door shut, demanding attention from everybody in the class. Magnus soon tuned out what she was saying, having perfected the art in his time in high school.

Who could be his secret admirer? He looked around the class discretely, mentally crossing off the people that couldn’t possibly be his mysterious pen pall. It had to be someone genderfluid, who disliked the English professor as much as him, was into art and was striking enough appearance wise that it’d be easy to find them in a crowd. One by one, the students in the class were crossed out, leaving just a handful of people that fit the criteria, one of them sticking out to Magnus more than anyone else.

_It couldn’t possibly be Alex… Right?_

Like, Magnus really wanted it to be her. A picture formed in his mind of Alex sneaking around to leave the notes in his book and locker, of her looking at him when he wasn’t paying attention. His heart did a little acrobatic trick at the thought, his cheeks warming up. Without realizing it, his lips had turned up in a small smile. _That would be nice._

He kept smiling like an idiot until his mind caught up with his heart and he mentally scolded himself. _Idiot, like that would happen,_ the pessimistic side of his brain said. _There’s no way you’d be that lucky. Don’t get your hopes up._

 _Still,_ the other side of his brain said. _It’d be nice if I was._

/

In the end, Magnus and his secret admirer exchanging letters had become common place. Magnus wasn’t keep replying to this person, but he couldn’t deny he liked her. They just got along well, they shared a lot of the same sarcastic attitude and interests. Talking (or, well, writing) to her was a lot of fun. Magnus had become accustomed to checking his locker every chance he got to see if there was a note there and his heart always soared whenever he found one

Of course, being Magnus, the realization didn’t hit him until sometime in December. He was in physics class, reading his admirer’s latest lesson instead of paying attention to whatever the teacher was talking about. He tapped his fingers on the desk as he tried to figure out what to write back, his mind constantly drifting off and stopping him from forming coherent sentences. He kept thinking back to all the other letters, their jokes and barbs at each other. How funny she was and how beautiful her sketches were, even though she kept insisting they weren’t anything special. How much he’d like to know who she was so they could spend time and person and actually hear her laugh instead of seeing it wrote on paper and –

That’s when it hit him, like a bucket of cold water to the face, as his heart fluttered at the thought. _Do I have a crush on her?_

He scrunched his eyes and shook his head, like that would get the thought to go away. A few students (that weren’t dozing off on their desks) looked at him confused but Magnus couldn’t be bothered to care about them; he was having a crisis here.

He couldn’t like her, right? Like, he had a crush on Alex, even though he couldn’t see himself acting out on it, he couldn’t have a crush on two people at the same time. Could he? He tried to reason with himself that he was wrong, after all, he hadn’t met her, but that wasn’t quite right, was it? He’d been talking to her for months now; even if it wasn’t face to face, he knew her and she knew him.

Confused, Magnus rubbed at his temples like he had a headache, a sight that wasn’t uncommon in this class. _Sweet falafel, why is this happening to me? I can’t deal with one crush, what am I supposed to do with two?_

If Magnus wasn’t paying attention to class before, he sure as hell wasn’t doing it now. His mind was flooded with thoughts of letters and startling eyes, sketches and green hair. Alex Fierro and the mysterious girl assaulted his mind, the butterflies in his stomach going on a rampage no matter which one he was thinking of.

Magnus’s crisis was still going strong by the time the school day ended and three days later, he still couldn’t come up with an answer as to which one he was crushing on harder. Is this what all the stupid main characters in bad YA novels felt like? After the third day of mentally questioning himself, Magnus resulted to the good old method of not thinking about it and hopping it will go away.

That always works, right?

… Oh, who is he kidding? He’s fucked. (And not in the good way.)

And to make matters worse (or better, if you like to see him suffer, like the universe does), in her last class before Christmas break, Miss. Marlene announced they would have to complete an assignment over the break in pairs. The students groaned because one, homework, and two, Miss. Marlene never lets you choose your partner, meaning you could be stuck with someone you’ve never spoken to in your whole career in this hellhole.

As Miss. Marlene announced the pairs, Magnus’s eyes wandered around the room, mentally ticking off the people that already had a partner or the people he just didn’t want to work with. His eyes were on Alex when, as if on cue, Miss. Marlene told him his partner for the project.

“Mari – Sorry, _Magnus_ Chase, you’ll be working with Alex Fierro.”

Magnus froze.

_Wait… what?_

It took a few moments for what he just heard to register in Magnus’s mind, during which he looked at the teacher in a dumbfounded expression. Unbeknown to him, Alex was in the exact same state.

 _You have to be kidding me,_ he thought.

Miss. Marlene went on to explain how they had to make a summary of a Shakespearean play and present it to class in any way they wanted. She went on to list out the kind of things they couldn’t do, like strip naked (because yes, that happened once), but Magnus wasn’t paying attention at all. His eyes trailed over to Alex where he was staring holes in his notebook, one hand buried in his green locks, the loose curls framing his dark skin and-

Okay, forget getting a good grade, Magnus will be lucky if he doesn’t turn into a pile of mush by the time they’ve finished the project.

In the desk next to his, Alex was having a similar crisis. He had to work on a project with Magnus. _Magnus._ Fuck, he already knew Miss. Marlene was evil, but he didn’t expect her to want him to die from too much cuteness! (Because have you _looked_ at Magnus Chase? Alex is pretty sure his doing this just to torture him.) (By ‘this’ he means existing.)

He spends the rest of the period glaring at his notebook, like it will somehow give him all the answers he needs. Before he realizes any time has passed, the bell has rang and Magnus is standing awkwardly by his desk.

“So, um, what should we do for the assignment?” The blonde boy asked. Magnus got up and they started talking as Alex suggested plays they could do, slowly slimming down their choices to Macbeth because it’s a classic and because they both like the part where Macbeth is so sure there’s no way he can just for him to lose. Alex is awfully acute of the half written letter in his bag, and a weird feeling settles into his stomach as they stop in front of Magnus’s locker. It’s so weird to think he’ll be sneaking around to leave that same letter in Magnus’s locker tomorrow. (He would like to leave it today, but he doesn’t have a free period and he still hasn’t finished his drawing at the back of it. Yes, he has to draw something, it’s a thing by this point and he won’t ruin it.)

“So, should we meet up after school to work on it?” Magnus asked. “Get it out of the way as soon as possible so we can forget about it?”

Alex nodded. Personally, he would have procrastinated till the last day, but anything for the human ball of sunshine. “Sure. Where do you want to meet?”

Magnus seemed to tense up at that and Alex guessed he hadn’t actually thought of that. “My house, I guess? It’s not far from school, we could walk there after school tomorrow.”

“Alright. I’ll see you then, Maggie.”

It was as Alex was walking away, trying to appear as cool and natural as possible, that it sank in. _I’m going to Magnus’s house tomorrow. Sweet fuck._

//

Magnus was waiting for Alex by the main doors of the school the next day while the rest of the students all but run away. Magnus couldn’t really blame them for it; he wanted to do the same right now.

 _Ok, relax, it’s just a school assignment,_ he told to himself. It’s not like he has never spoken to Alex one on one for more than fifteen minutes and they will be alone in his room for who knows how long with nobody around other than his adopted fathers who know how much he likes her and will certainly embarrass him. He’ll be fine.

Oh, who is he kidding?

Magnus fiddles with his shirt when he finally sees Alex’s green head of hair among the sea of students. He straightens his back suddenly, for what purpose he doesn’t know, but he does it. Alex struggles a bit too get out of the crowd of students, by trough a lot of ducking and elbowing people taller than her, she manages to get to where Magnus is and _holly kebab._

Now, Magnus will be the first to tell you that Alex Fierro can’t look bad, even when she’s in an old hoodie that’s long enough to work as a dress and has paint stains and clay bits all over her. She just looks good and Magnus has accepted the fact he will never get a break from how pretty she is and the heart attacks she subsequently gives him, but is she _trying_ to kill him right now?

She’s in boots and patterned pink tights, a worn parka with pink fur at the hood open over a dark green sweater with _‘Fuck you’_ written in Christmas lights. She doesn’t look to be affected by the cold weather that has Magnus looking like an onion (he’s wearing five layers of clothes) and he would have been upset at the injustice of it if Alex didn’t look tiny inside her large jacket.

“Hey, Magnus,” she greeted when she came closer. The boy in question had to do a double take – was she wearing make up? Admittedly, it was very little but it made her captivating eyes pop even more than they already did and Magnus would not make it through to the end of the night, he was sure of that.

“Hey, Alex,” he said back, hoping with everything he had he didn’t sound _too_ awkward. Over Alex’s shoulder, he saw Halfborn, Mallory, T.J and Sam give him thumbs up and mouth encouragements at him (T.J was holding up a notebook with “GO TIGER!” written on it). His stomach dropped and he wished as hard as he could Alex wouldn’t turn around because if she did he would die.

“Should we get going?” Alex asked, her cheeks pink from the cold.

“Yeah, I’m freezing here.” _Also my friends want to embarrass me in front of my crush._

“I don’t know, it’s not that cold,” Alex said as they walked away from the school and Magnus’s friends. Magnus turned to look at her so fast he almost got whiplash.

“‘Not that cold’? Not that cold?” Magnus nearly yelled. “My tits are freezing off – and honestly, be my guest – but still! How are you not cold?”

Alex shrugged, a smile on her lips. “I don’t know. I guess… the cold never bothered me anyway.”

Magnus stared at her blankly. Alex kept looking at him with a shit eating grin.

“You didn’t just do that.”

“Oh, come on, it was too good to pass up.” Alex was smiling so widely that she had wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Magnus himself was trying hard not to smile and all his previous worries about today were forgotten. “You would have said it too.”

Magnus couldn’t so no to that. “Yeah, you’re right. So if you’re Elsa, who does that make me?”

Alex hummed as she thought, pouting slightly and why is the world doing this to him? “Marshmallow-  no, Olaf! Marshmallow is like a gentle giant, you’re nowhere near a giant.”

“I’m still taller than you,” he pointed out. Alex glared at him from her three inches shorter height.

“And don’t you love pointing that out.”

Magnus laughed. They kept walking though the street, occasionally to jump inside a pile of snow against their better judgment. By the time they made it to Magnus’s apartment their noses were red and they had snow in their shoes.

“My room is down the hall to the left,” Magnus said as he kicked off his boots. If they were lucky, he could get Alex into his room and out of sight before Hearthstone saw her (Blitzen should still be at the shop at this hour).

Just when Magnus though they were safe, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He yelped, an embarrassingly high sound he would deny later, and turned to find Hearthstone behind him.

 _“Hi, Magnus. Who’s your friend?”_ Hearth signed and despite playing innocent Magnus could tell from his little smirk that he knew exactly who this was.

“Hearth, this is Alex. Alex, this is Hearth, his one of my dads,” he said, signing as he spoke.

 _“It’s nice to finally meet Magnus’s crush. He doesn’t shut up about you.”_ The cheeky little shit was smiling the whole time he was signing that; to anyone who didn’t know him it would seem like a perfectly normal smile, but Magnus knew he was evil in the inside. Thankfully for him, Alex didn’t seem to understand what Hearth had signed.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know sign language.”

“He said he happy to meet one of my friends and that he’s heard a lot about you,” Magnus quickly translated. Hearth was smirking at him but Alex didn’t seem to notice.

“Only good things, I hope.”

Magnus cocked his head to the side. “There are good things to say about you?”

Alex rolled her eyes and punched him lightly in the arm while Hearth, much to Magnus’s horror, signed, _“Young love. I remember when Blitzen and I first met.”_

“We’re gonna go start working on that project now!” Magnus all but yelled, glaring at Hearth over his shoulder as he pushed Alex towards his room. Hearth just smiled and signed, _“Go lover-boy.”_

Once safely inside his room, Magnus was finally able to relax. “Make yourself comfortable,” he told Alex, who was looking curiously around his room at different posters and books. “I’m just gonna…” he made a few awkward hand gestures, pointing awkwardly towards his chest before grabbing a sports bra (that was hanging off the back of his desk chair, why didn’t he think to tidy his room before Alex came?) and going to the bathroom to change.

When he came back, Alex was looking at the summary at the back of _Six of Crows_ and didn’t seem to really pay attention to Magnus putting his binder away inside his closet. He glanced nervously to the second drawer in his desk, hoping Alex didn’t snoop around in there while he was in the bathroom. He kept the letters from his secret admirer there and he didn’t dare imagine what would happen if Alex found them. He would never be able to live it down.

Speaking of letters, he still hadn’t gotten a reply to his last letter even though he left it two days ago. He figured she was just busy with school or the holidays, but he was still curious about why she hadn’t responded to him yet.

“This sounds nice,” Alex said, putting the book back on the self before joining Magnus where he was sitting on the floor. Magnus offered to let her borrow it and they soon got to work, brainstorming ideas for their summary of Macbeth and roasting Miss. Marlene. They had decided on a sarcastic, stand-up comedy kind of summary and after coming up with a few jokes, they decided to start writing down their lines.

“We need some paper,” Magnus mumbled, reaching out to open Alex’s notebook where it lay on the floor and opening it in the back to start writing.

“Magnus, wait-“Alex said, eyes going wide when she saw him taking the notebook but it was too late. Magnus had already opened at the very back, where an all too familiar handwriting looked up at him.

_Dear Magnus,_

_I am appalled to know you have never seen_ The Exorcist _or_ The Shining. _I am truly disappointed in you, how dare you. I don’t care if you say you don’t like horror movies, you need to watch them._

_You-_

Magnus wasn’t able to read any more of it because Alex reaped the notebook from his hands. “Give that!” she yelled, eyes wide with panic as she clutched it to her chest, like it would somehow make Magnus forget what he had seen.

“You’re…” he started, looking at Alex frozen in place. He felt like someone had just thrown him inside a freezing lake. Alex was his secret admirer? “You were the one writing me letters?”

“Y-yeah…” Alex was avoiding looking at him, the notebook clutched to her chest, looking like a turtle trying to hide in its shell.

In hindsight, Magnus knew what he did wasn’t the best move, but the absurdity of the situation caught up to him. Here he was, crushing so hard on Alex for the past few months, stressing over what he should do when he realized he was crushing on his admirer too. He rejected the idea that she could ever possibly be his admirer when he had been right and she was the one he was exchanging letters with all this months. It was so ridiculous that he couldn’t help bursting out in laughter.

With his eyes scrunched close, Magnus didn’t the hurt flashing in Alex’s eyes that quickly turned to anger. With tears she refused to let fall in her eyes, she grabbed her bag from the floor and shoved the notebook inside. “I’m leaving,” she said, her voice breaking despite how hard she tried to sound normal.

Magnus’s laughter died in his throat when he saw Alex moving towards the door in a hurry, desperately trying to hold back tears. “Alex, wait!” He cried out, grabbing her wrist just before she was able to open the door and leave.

“Why?” she snapped turning back to him. “Why? So you can laugh at me more? Stupid Alex with her stupid crush, writing you fucking letters! I’m sure it’s so funny, did you show the letters to your friends so you could all laugh over them?”

Alex’s face was red with rage, tears making their way down her cheeks. Her voice was raw as she yelled at him, but she kept going. Magnus had never felt such guilt before in his life, like a hand was squeezing his heart.

“I didn’t, Alex, no one else knows about them but us,” he said. His hand was still wrapped around her wrist as Alex’s shoulders shook and he looked her in the eyes, wishing with all his might she’ll believe him.

“And why should I believe you?” she yelled. “You just found out I’ve been crushing on you like an idiot and you laughed in my face!”

“Yes, because I didn’t think _you_ of all people would like me!” Magnus yelled back. The anger in Alex’s face seemed to subside and he took his chance to explain himself. “I didn’t think I could ever possibly be that lucky! I’ve been crushing on you since you came to this school! My friends tease me on a daily basis because I stare at you like a lovesick puppy without realizing! When you started writing to me, I tried to figure out who you were, and I wondered if it was you but rejected the idea because I didn’t think you’d like me! And then I started getting a crush on the person writing me letters only to find out that she and my crush were the same person!”

Magnus hadn’t realized how loud he had gotten until he stopped speaking. Silence fell between them as Alex stared at him with wide eyes.

“You mean that?” Alex finally asked hesitantly.

“Yes! Yes, I do! I like you so much, you have no idea, and I’m sorry I laughed at you and made you cry, I didn’t mean to do that, but the situation was so absurd and it just came out and-“

A laugh stopped Magnus’s frantic rambling. Alex was wiping the tears from her eyes as she laughed at him and Magnus’s heart swelled at the sound.

“Uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble like that, I just got nervous,” he muttered, looking awkwardly to the side. Alex chuckled again and Magnus wouldn’t mind making a fool of himself all the time if it would get her to laugh.

“It’s fine, idiot,” she said. Magnus didn’t know someone could make idiot sound so much like a pet name. “So… will you stop holding my wrist and hold my hand?”

Magnus’s heart skipped a sonnet’s worth of beats. “Y-yeah.” He moved his hind down and took her hand in his. “Is this okay?”

Alex grinned at him and squeezed him hand. “I asked you to do it, didn’t I?”

Magnus smiled back happily and for a moment, they stayed there, just holding hands and smiling. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Hearthstone came in with a tray of snacks. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the two teens holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes and smiling like they were in a romance movie. He slowly set the tray down.

 _“Excuse me for interrupting,”_ he signed. _“Carry on.”_

He closed the door behind him and left. Then, he opened it again just a second later and signed, _“Also, if you just got together, congratulations. It was about time.”_

This time when Hearth left he didn’t come back and the new couple burst into laughing at what had just happened. When they finally got their breath back and they weren’t doubled over anymore, Magnus spoke up.

“So, are we a couple now?”

Alex rolled her eyes at him with a smirk. “What do you think?” she asked and leaned in to plant a kiss on Magnus’s lips. No matter how many times he had imagined kissing Alex, he had never imagined her kisses would be so soft and sweet.

Magnus must have still been too caught up on the fact that _Alex had just kissed him_ because he didn’t speak after Alex pulled away. Alex’s brows furrowed with worry at the silence.

“Was that not okay?” she asked quietly. A huge smile broke out on Magnus’s face, one of those smiles that looked brighter than the sun to Alex and he leaned in to kiss her again.

“It was perfect.”


End file.
